"I'm really sorry to call you in on a Saturday-"
"It's fine," I said, grabbing my coat.
"No one else could find the file, and I left the mission report to the last minute-"
"Really, Pietro, it's fine," I said, locking my door behind me. "I don't mind coming in. It's only a short walk."
Pietro thanked me, and I hung up and started the walk to the Avengers' Tower.
It had been a few weeks since the training room incident, and since I'd realised that I had a crush on Pietro fricken Maximoff. Things went back to normal between us, and nothing felt awkward, but I still wanted to kiss him every time I saw him. I was pretty sure Wanda knew because she kept giving me looks.
I arrived at the tower and texted Pietro to meet me at my office. When I reached the doors, Pietro was standing there waiting for me.
"I'm really sorry, Printsessa," he apologised. "I really didn't mean for you to have to come in on your day off."
I just shrugged.
"It's fine, Pietro, really," I said. "Besides, it means that I get to see you."
Pietro grinned at me as I sat down and logged into my computer. I searched through my files and found the one Pietro needed. I emailed it to him and printed it as well, just in case.
I got the papers from the printer and held them out for him to take. Pietro's fingers brushed against mine as he took the paper. I smiled softly and he smiled back at me.
God, I loved that smile.
Pietro took a small step towards me, closing the distance between our bodies-
"Y/n? Isn't today your day off?"
I jumped and looked at my doorway to see Steve standing there.
"Steve! What – what are you doing here?" I asked, taking a step back from Pietro.
Steve looked between me and Pietro for a moment before shaking his head.
"Jarvis said you'd arrived at the tower," he said. "I wanted to know why you'd come in on your day off."
I just shrugged.
"Pietro needed some paperwork, and I was more than happy to come and help," I said.
Steve narrowed his eyes at Pietro who put his hands up exasperatedly.
"Okay, yeah, maybe I forgot to do the mission report you told me to do a week ago and I only just remembered today when you told me it was due tomorrow," he said.
I laughed and shook my head. Pietro grinned and Steve gave Pietro a look. Pietro just shrugged dramatically, causing Steve to chuckle once and shake his head at us.
"I'll let you two get back to whatever you were doing," he said. "Unless you want to join Bucky and I for a round of Monopoly?"
I looked to Pietro and shrugged.
"I'm down for that," I said.
Pietro nodded, so we walked with Steve to the common area. Bucky was sitting on the floor, reading the rules of Monopoly.
"The rules are pretty much the same," he told Steve. "Some things are updated to be more modern, but everything's pretty much the same since it came out in '35."
"You two are really old, I keep forgetting," Pietro muttered.
I nudged him lightly and he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
My brain stopped working.
Yeah, I know that's supposed to be impossible with my perfect mind and all, but the contact made it hard to think. I couldn't think around where his arm touched my shoulders and where his hand started playing with my hair.
Tony, Clint, and Natasha entered the room, talking to each other.
"I had it stashed under my bed, I swear, Tasha," Clint said.
"Well, you obviously didn't," she said, "otherwise it would be there."
"Someone might have stolen it," Tony suggested.
Tony looked to the ground and saw Bucky reading through the instructions.
"I found the culprit," he said.
Natasha and Clint looked to Bucky, who looked up from the paper innocently. Clint pointed at him in fear.
"No! No! Only one assassin is allowed in my room, and that is Tasha! I don't trust you lot!" he yelled.
"Clint, you're an assassin too," Natasha sighed.
She said it like they'd had this conversation multiple times.
"Why was the Monopoly board stashed under your bed?" I asked.
Tony started laughing and walked over to the bar to pour a drink for himself. Natasha rubbed the back of her neck and Clint cleared his throat.
"Technically, we're not allowed to play Monopoly," Clint said. "Last time didn't end well, and Pepper banned it, so-"
"Didn't end well?" Tony yelled. "Natasha threw me out of the window!"
Natasha laughed.
"I remember that," she said fondly.
I just blinked in surprise. I supposed Tony's suit saved him, and I guessed that the sight would have been funny.
Wanda and Vision entered the common area, followed by Sam. Sam saw the Monopoly board immediately and rubbed his hands together.
"Are we playing, then?" he asked.
Vision saw the box as well, and shook his head.
"Miss Potts said-"
"What she doesn't know can't kill her," Tony said. "I say we play."
"We'll need to be in teams," Clint said. "I dibs Nat."
We went back and forth choosing a partner. Steve and Tony got stuck together, and so did Sam and Bucky. Wanda and Vision paired up, which left me with Pietro, not that I minded.
We all sat down around the coffee table. Pietro sat next to me, his arm still around my shoulders. We decided to be the boot ("N/n, I run fast so we have to be the shoe"), and soon enough we were playing the game.
At one point Pietro pulled my hair back and whispered something in my ear, and I felt tingles run all the way through my body. The feeling of his fingers slightly scraping at my neck was impossible to think past, and I almost missed what he said.
Soon enough Pietro and I had almost half of the board, including Mayfair and Park Lane. Steve and Tony kept arguing about what properties to buy, and Bucky and Sam kept arguing over who got to roll the dice. Wanda and Vision were doing fine, and Clint and Natasha were a close second to Pietro and I.
I leaned over to Pietro.
"We need to make them all go broke," I murmured in his ear.
"No shit," he whispered back. "Do you have a plan, Printsessa?"
"Sam and Bucky are furthest behind," I murmured. "We've gotta make them land on our properties, so we need to buy the hotels. They have the last property in the set we need, so we wait until they go bankrupt and buy it from them. Then we add more hotels, get them out of the game, and repeat on the next poorest pair."
Pietro nodded and I pulled away from his ear and surveyed the board.
We eventually got Sam and Bucky out, as well as getting the property we wanted from them. We got Tony and Steve to go broke, and then Wanda and Vision. Soon enough, it was only Pietro and I versus Clint and Natasha. They whispered to each other and came up with a plan, but eventually they lost to Pietro and I.
"Ha!" Pietro yelled triumphantly. "Suck that, old man!"
I laughed at Pietro's exclamation while Clint just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.
"Y/n, you should be a business woman," Sam sighed.
"No!" Tony yelled, removing his face from the couch where he had retired to after losing. "She can't leave us!"
I laughed and looked away awkwardly. I wasn't so sure if I was going to stay forever. Not because I didn't like them, but when you had a past like mine, it was better for everyone if I moved on eventually.
But I didn't want to leave them. Ever. I loved them all, even though I'd only known them for three months or so. They'd become dear friends to me, and they were slowly becoming family.
"Well, I think I'd best get going," I said, stretching and standing up. "It's starting to get late."
"I'm gonna set up a room for you," Tony decided. "Next time you'll be able to stay here."
I smiled at him gratefully.
"Thanks, Tony," I said.
"See you soon, Printsessa," Pietro said, giving me a wave and a smile.
I waved back at him and the others before leaving the room.
I was really going to miss them all when I had to leave again.